11 March, 2017

The private 'investors' as the only option for recovery: another fairy tale by the neoliberal establishment

by system
failure

The Greek
experiment is already going through its seventh year with the economy
completely ruined and no recovery to be seen in the horizon.

Apart from
the complete failure of the neoliberal policies imposed on Greece by
the Troika of destruction (ECB, IMF, Commission), it is interesting
to examine how the neoliberal narratives affect the public opinion
and how they becoming part of the rational thought of the societies
(in our case the Greek society), mainly through the mainstream media
brainwash.

One of the
central cliches of the neoliberal mouthpieces in Greece and abroad
concerns the necessity of private 'investors' for the recovery of the
economy. The private mainstream media and the political establishment
managed to persuade the average citizen (not only in Greece), that
Greece needs 'political stability' in order to attract 'investments'
and therefore thousands new jobs.

The reality
of course is completely different. The most powerful lobbies of
bankers and private 'investors' inside Greece and abroad, have
actually dictated the catastrophic memorandums adopted by the Greek
governments during the crisis. The Troika is only their vehicle for
this purpose. In real life, the various so-called 'investors' do not
care about a healthy economy, or stability. They do not care, of
course, to help a national economy to recover. All they care is to
make money as much fast and easy as possible. A ruined economy is a
great opportunity for such a purpose because they will grab public
property almost free.

Furthermore,
the memorandums of catastrophe signed by Greece dictate the complete
elimination of the labor rights, the radical tax-cuts (but only for
big businesses), the sell-off of public property, the destruction of
the welfare state. What the neoliberal carriers call 'reforms'. In
other words: more profits for the private 'investors', more
destruction for the rest.

So, when the
neoliberal mouthpieces talk about 'reforms' they mean all the above.
When they talk about 'stability' they mean a government 'friendly' to
the 'investors', ready to sell-off the whole country to them. That's
why the Troika wants to replace Alexis Tsipras with Kyriakos
Mitsotakis, the purely neoliberal head of New Democracy, the
opposition party that belongs to the European Popular Right of Merkel
and Schäuble.

For now,
Troika controls Tsipras and his administration. It forced him to sign
a new memorandum according to the schedule, even through a financial coup. Yet, there are some things that the 'investors' who control
Troika, don't like about Tsipras. For example, the fact that he makes
some moves to open the case of previous big scandals related to the
previous political establishment in which Mitsotakis belongs.
'Investors' don't like that. They want corrupted governments like the
ones before SYRIZA that can buy easily through bribes.

There is one
more thing that the 'investors' don't like about SYRIZA and Tsipras:
they still believe that they can restart the economy through public
investments. Of course, Draghi will never allow the QE to open for
Greece with Tsipras administration in power because of this 'danger'.
If the Greek government be allowed to breathe through a QE package or
other EU resources that will help the economy to recover through
public investments, it will be the end of the neoliberal experiment
and a great defeat for the lobbyists. Other countries who suffer from
violent austerity and memorandums would like to follow the example of
Greece instead of waiting for the 'holy' investors to come and save
them.

And this is
another reason for which Greece is kept imprisoned inside the
sado-monetarist euro prison. With a national currency and a central
bank publicly controlled, Greece wouldn't have to worry about another
ECB financial coup that would threaten the economy with a sudden
total destruction. The country could direct the money to public
investments that could restart the Greek economy.

An example
of how public investments helped a country to recover after a major
financial crisis can be found in the United States of 1930s. Back
in 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) got elected, he had to
face the attack of the corporate establishment, which was trying to
fight his initiatives to put the state in the front line for the
restart of the US economy. Public relations was something new. Edward
Bernays had admitted after
decades that he was searching at that time for a "smoothest"
term instead of "propaganda", to use it in favor of big
corporations to sell their products, at times of peace. Corporations
used public relations to present the private sector as a far better
force than the state, towards the wealth and prosperity. In reality,
they were only afraid that would lose significant profits from
various programs, taken over by the state to create jobs.

FDR was
aware of this type of propaganda by the corporate establishment and
the associated political elite. A quote from a Roosevelt's speech is
characteristic: “A few timid people, who fear progress, will try
to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes
they will call it 'Fascism,' sometimes 'Communism,' sometimes
'Regimentation,' sometimes 'Socialism.' But, in so doing, they are
trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really
very simple and very practical.”

Despite its
imperfections, Roosevelt's "New Deal" created millions of
new jobs and new infrastructure for the benefit of all American
citizens, boosted some sectors such as agriculture, strengthened
social security and boosted the economy in general. The response of
Roosevelt, "of course we spend money", to his opponents,
captures the perception of his government, giving importance to the
prosperity and relief of people and not to the strict austerity for
the sake of economic indexes. Indeed, while in 1933 the national debt
was 20% of GDP, by 1936 this figure almost doubled, but what mattered
for Roosevelt was to relieve American citizens and give them hope and
perspective.

The same
narratives are used today in Greece by the banking-media
establishment. Anyone who dares to speak about public investments,
instantly demonized as 'old-fashioned' or even 'Communist'. The big
irony in the Greek case is that austerity didn't manage to reduce
debt. On the contrary, the debt reached 180% of GDP compared to 120%
of GDP at the beginning of the crisis.

The tragic
irony is that, despite the total failure, the neoliberal
establishment managed to brainwash the majority of the public
concerning private 'investments'. In the mind of the average Greek,
private 'investments' is the only way through which the economy could
recover. This perception is deeply embedded in his rational thought.
In this way, this brutal system continues to destroy the middle class
under its consent. The middle class vainly waits for the private
'investors' to come and offer real solution. It won't happen. At the
best-case scenario, they will offer very few jobs under slavery
conditions ...